Vanishing ice and snow: record warm winter wreaks havoc across US midwest

This winter's mild temperatures, a result of climate change, have wrecked plans and disrupted local economies in the region

As a child in the 1990s, Joseph Kuzma remembers how he and his father would - around this time of year - drive their truck out on to Lake Erie and set up a mini camp right on the ice.

We'd stay out there all weekend in an ice shanty. Catch fish, cook it and sleep in bunks on the ice," he said. He also recalled sitting next to his brother when he drove a dump truck from the nearby island of Put-In-Bay to the mainland atop the lake ice, remarking: We would have 6in to 8in of ice."